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Winona LaDuke

85 quotes

“I have heard that a number of times in my life. "You guys should get over it, it happened a long time ago." You cannot get over it if you are still in the same circumstance as a consequence of what happened a hundred years ago. You cannot get over it if you are still in exactly the same relationship as you were a hundred years ago. Some try to keep their trees and some try to take them.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The white man, or the American government, has a way of saying they are sorry, which is to pay you. That's pretty much their approach. Now what our elders have said in our reservation and in Indian country in general is that actually the only compensation for land is land. That you cannot pay us with money that you took, that you made off of our land. That's kind of the analysis that goes behind that. Because the only thing that is actually of value to our community is the land itself. It is not the compensation.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Within a decade of the completion of the La Grande Complex, signs of environmental disasters have become obvious. Massive flooding had once again leached methyl Mercury from the soil, changing an inorganic Mercury compound in the water into organic mercury.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: LaDuke (2015) All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life , P. 62
“Winona LaDuke became involved in Native American issues after meeting Jimmy Durham, a well known Cherokee activist, while she was attending Harvard University. At the age of 18, she spoke in front of the United Nations regarding Native American rights and has remained one of the most prominent voices for American Indian economic and environmental concerns.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life. (2015), p.225
“A Navajo woman said to me, “In our old mythologies and stories, they talked of monster slayers.” She says we need a new generation of monster slayers. I think that’s such a powerful analogy, and it’s so true. It’s a David and Goliath moment, and we’ve got to hang in there because they are weakening…”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On employing “monster slayers to stop pipelining in “We Are the Seventh Generation: A Conversation with Winona LaDuke” in Edge Effects (2017 Nov 14)
“It’s so ironic and so tragic, this dichotomy between the large oil corporations and the people who have always stood for their land. To all of us it was a Selma moment, that’s how I look at it. And if you contextualize it in the history of American movements and social movements, Standing Rock is a Selma moment when we all woke up, we all woke up and said, “This is what it looks like on the front lines.”…”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the people of Standing Rock protesting against an oil corporation in “Interview with Winona LaDuke: The Windigo Economy” in Indian Country (2018 Jul 17)
“I’m looking down the barrel of a very big pipeline, which is a $7 billion boondoggle of stranded assets. We’ll talk about that later. But I’m looking down the pipeline, you know, at the barrel of this pipeline, and I’m looking: What could $7 billion do in Minnesota? What could it do to make a New Green Deal?”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I didn’t really like this economy too much. Didn’t work out too well for my people, you know.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So the next economy has to be something that reaffirms our relationship to the Earth and gives us a shot. That, to me, looks like a lot of local food, organic food.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You know, you don’t need some guys to put something in the sky to keep the carbon out of the sky. You need to put it in the soil. And so you need organic agriculture. That’s what we’re doing in my community.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What I want to do is to rebuild the hemp industry in Indian country. And I want us at the table, not on the menu. I want us to be in the leadership of this next economy, because we have a lot of territory upon which you can grow hemp. And we can rebuild the light manufacturing industry in this country.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To the Native community, (Trump)’s kind of like the new incarnation of Andrew Jackson: you know, bad president for Indian people, bad president for everybody. But, you know, to us, and to be super honest, I mean, we don’t have a lot of experience with great presidents. You know, what we have experience with is that we’re going to fight this out, and we’re going to make the next economy. We’re going to make our future. That’s what self-determination is about.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Standing Rock was an example of regulatory capture, when your whole system is controlled by corporations”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Social movements and lawyers are who stop pipelines. Social movements and lawyers.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lakes that you can still drink from. That's where I live. And that’s what this battle is about. It’s about, you know: Can we protect that?”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What we need is a New Deal that builds infrastructure for people, not for oil companies. As I said, $7 billion that is for an oil company pipeline, that could be spent much better.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There’s a price to destroying boreal forest.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The tar sands is a boreal forest. You know, and you turn something that is the oxygen of the North—I mean, the boreal forest of northern Canada—of Canada is the equivalent of the lungs. It’s the Amazon of the North. It’s the Amazon of the North. And that is what is being destroyed by the tar sands. Wetland—this is just going through our wetlands. The value of a wetland—you know, I’m an economist by training, but how do you value a wetland for what it does for Mother Earth and for the planet and for your water and for insects and for where the wild things are?”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As I look out there, this is the time of, you know, catastrophes of biblical proportions, if we are going to call it that. You know, to the south, you have the great floods. To the west, the entire West Coast is on fire. To the north, the ice is melting, and polar bears are eating each other.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Indian people know how to take care of this land.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The public lands and the Native lands should be protected for the public and the Natives, not necessarily some mining corporations.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Deb (Haaland)’s history here with a vision that she and other leaders have had in Washington with a just transition and the Green New Deal is exactly what we need in this country. We don’t need any more fossil fuels. We’re done. We’re done. What we need is the vision and a just transition.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think that we should be done with appointing corporate heads to run parts of our government. They have enough influence already.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Enbridge was 28% of DAPL. And when the federal court ordered them to close down the pipe, they said no. When the state of Michigan ordered them to close down a pipe this last May, they said no. So they’re just trying to continue their egregious behavior.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s so tragic that, you know, on one hand, the Biden administration is like, “We are going to have Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but we’re still going to smash you in northern Minnesota and smash the rest of the country.” Same thing, you know, Klobuchar and Smith, the two Minnesota senators, shameful their lack of courage, not only for Indigenous people but for the planet”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Enbridge and the Walz administration are climate criminals.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Biden administration needs to stand up. You know, on one hand, I’m looking at Joe Biden, and I’m so grateful. Like, Bears Ears, that was the right thing to do, you know, to get back and to be the people that are supporting Indigenous people and Land Back...You know, 80 million acres of national parks stolen from Indian people, let’s start returning those, too, along with creating new national parks. We could just start returning land that was stolen. That would be a great step.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No sane person supports this pipeline. Only people who want to take oil money from Canadian multinationals support this pipeline.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you appoint Indian people, don’t just make them pretty Indian people that sit in your administration. Let them do their job. Indigenous thinking is what we need in the colonial administration. That’s when change happens.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Seventy-five percent of the world’s mining corporations are Canadian, and all through Latin America there’s human rights violations.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you an activist and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare doesn't make a corporation a terrorist. (2026)”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Minobimaatisiiwin," or the "good life," is the basic objective of the Anishinaabeg and Cree³ people who have historically, and to this day, occupied a great portion of the north-central region of the North American continent. An alternative interpretation of the word is "continuous rebirth." This is how we traditionally understand the world and how indigenous societies have come to live within natural law. Two tenets are essential to this paradigm: cyclical thinking and reciprocal relations and responsibilities to the Earth and creation.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Environmental Futures" (1994)
“What gives corporations like Conoco, Shell, Exxon, Daishowa, ITT, Rio Tinto Zinc, and the World Bank the right which supersedes or is superior to my human right to live on my land, or that of my family, my community, my nation, our nations, and to us as women? What law gives that right to them? Not any law of the Creator or of Mother Earth. Is that right contained within their wealth? Is that right contained within their wealth, which was historically acquired immorally, unethically through colonialism and imperialism and paid for with the lives of millions of people, species of plants, and entire ecosystems? They should have no such right. And we clearly, as women and as indigenous peoples, demand and will recover that right-the right of self-determination, to determine our own destiny and that of our future generations.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rights of the people to use and enjoy air, water, and sunlight are essential to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These basic human rights have been impaired by those who discharge toxic substances into the air, water, and land. Contaminating the commons must be recognized as a fundamental wrong in our system of laws, just as defacing private property is wrong. On that basis, the Seventh Generation Amendment to the Constitution of the United States declares, "The right of citizens of the U.S. to enjoy and use air, water, sunlight, and other renewable resources determined by the Congress to be common property shall not be impaired, nor shall such use impair their availability for use by the future generations.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One time I was sitting in Sitka, Alaska—did you ever get a chance to go there? Beautiful. Like sometimes you just go someplace. I was at a writers’ workshop. I was in Sitka, Alaska, and I was watching—you know, the eagles were capturing the salmon that had come in. And so there was like eagles diving down into the ocean, and, you know, the salmon. And there were bears. And I looked out there, and I saw this cruise ship coming into the left of my vision. And it came in, and I was like, “Oh, I don’t like that.” The cruise ship came in, and then I watched that cruise ship turn a 180 and go exactly back out. And that’s basically what we’ve got to do. You know, we have to make the next economy, and that next economy is going to be green. That next economy is going to have people like me making decisions. I’d like to be an architect for the next economy. I didn’t like the last one.”
Winona LaDuke (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source